YIG magnonics

Early experiments in magnonics were made using ferrite samples, largely due to the intrinsically low magnetic (spin-wave) damping in these materials. Historically, magnonic phenomena were studied on micrometre to millimetre length scales. Today, the principal challenge in applied magnonics is to create sub-micrometre devices using modern polycrystalline magnetic alloys. However, until certain technical obstacles are overcome in these materials, ferrites—in particular yttrium iron garnet (YIG)—remain a valuable source of insight. At a time when interest in magnonic systems is particularly strong, it is both useful and timely to review the main scientific results of YIG magnonics of the last two decades, and to discuss the transferability of the concepts and ideas learned in ferrite materials to modern nano-scale systems.